Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Law Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Tax reform

Maurice A. Deane School of Law at Hofstra University

Articles 1 - 2 of 2

Full-Text Articles in Law

I Dig It, But Congress Shouldn't Let Me: Closing The Idgt Loophole, Daniel L. Ricks Dec 2010

I Dig It, But Congress Shouldn't Let Me: Closing The Idgt Loophole, Daniel L. Ricks

ACTEC Law Journal

By combining three tools that independently are beneficial to taxpayers, clever estate planners have devised a transaction - the installment sale of discounted assets to an intentionally defective grantor trust - that saves their ultra-wealthy clients millions of dollars in estate and gift taxes. This transaction, which is a foundational part of many estate plans, takes advantage of rules that Congress never intended to be used in this way. Becasue the Internal Revenue Service has conceded its inability to challenge the transaction based on current law, any solution lies with Congress. This Article proposes an amendment to § 2036 that …


Attractive Complexity: Tax Deregulation, The Check-The-Box Election, And The Future Of Tax Simplification, Steven A. Dean Jan 2005

Attractive Complexity: Tax Deregulation, The Check-The-Box Election, And The Future Of Tax Simplification, Steven A. Dean

Hofstra Law Review

Political failure has long been the scapegoat for the increasing complexity of the income tax. Over the last few decades, confusion over the meaning of the term simplification appears to have become a second important obstacle to creating simpler tax laws. Because some tax complexity is attractive to taxpayers, relying on taxpayer preferences to identify complexity and to guide simplification efforts has produced reforms and proposals that promise simplification but instead deliver pro-taxpayer deregulation that may cause more of society's resources to be devoted to paying, minimizing and collecting taxes rather than less. The check-the-box election, which provided taxpayers with …